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Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner will lead a five-year study on conspiracy theories in South Asia funded by the European Research Council
The European Research Council (ERC) has granted anthropologist Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner from Freie Universität Berlin a Consolidator Grant with which to fund his project “Conspiracy Theorizing from South Asia.” Over the next five years, Schaflechner and his team will investigate the formation, mediatization, and appropriation of conspiracy theories in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. By examining South Asia, this research project seeks to redress an existing overemphasis on the Global North in the field of global conspiracy theories. The ERC Consolidator Grant is considered one of the most prestigious European grants available for experienced researchers. In addition to substantial funding amounting to almost two million euros over a five-year period, it brings international visibility, enhances academic standing, and creates new avenues for cooperation.
Schaflechner’s research project, “Conspiracy Theorizing from South Asia (Con-SA),” aims to challenge the dominance of European and US-centric perspectives in the field of conspiracy theory studies. While conspiracy theories are widely debated as a global phenomenon, case studies from the Global North have largely shaped their definitions to date. Schaflechner aims to change this by investigating how conspiracy theories arise in South Asia, how they spread across digital media landscapes, and what roles they play in the political and social lives of people in the region.
Schaflechner says, “In Con-SA we will examine conspiracy theories surrounding topics such as politics, the apocalypse, global warming, gender, and minorities in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. We will look into which narratives are considered to be conspiracy theories in local contexts, which conspiracy theories successfully move through digitally dominated media landscapes, and how our interlocuters (e.g., politicians, influencers, and minorities) appropriate conspiracy theories in their daily lives. A mixed-methods approach combining multi-sited ethnography with computational methods in mostly non-Anglophone online spaces will help us study online content and the media practices of people producing and consuming conspiracy theories.”
About Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner
Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner is a research group leader at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin. He has established himself internationally as an expert on the political and social movements of minorities in South Asia. His research is situated in political anthropology and focuses on forms of populism in precarious communities, the cultures and politics of resentment, and processes of communicative capitalism in postcolonial settings. His work further deals with cultural and postcolonial theory, the socio-anthropology of martial arts, and the role of documentary film in ethnographic research. A central focus of his research is the interaction between political mobilization and religious practice. Schaflechner has carried out extensive fieldwork in Pakistan and India as part of his research. His book Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 2018) is considered a seminal work on Hindu communities in Pakistan in the field of anthropology. His upcoming book, What Can a Minority Body Do? (Columbia University Press) analyzes how “non-Muslims” negotiate religious belonging and citizenship in Pakistan. Schaflechner has also filmed, edited, and produced several documentary films in which he combines scientific analysis with experimental visual formats. In doing so, he aims to improve the visibility of anthropological research on South Asia beyond the academic sphere. In his philosophical and theoretical film series CUT (Cinematic Understanding of Theory), he engages with key contemporary theoretical concepts through conversations with thinkers such as Peter Sloterdijk, Chantal Mouffe, and Wendy Brown. He has had visiting appointments at several universities, including Harvard, Princeton, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Further Information
• More information on ERC Consolidator Grants: https://erc.europa.eu/apply-grant/consolidator-grant
• More information on the European Research Council (ERC): https://erc.europa.eu/about-erc/erc-glance
• General information on ERC Grants at Freie Universität Berlin: https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/forschung/kommunikation/preise/erc/index.html
• Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner’s departmental webpage: https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/ethnologie/forschung/arbeitsstellen/freigeistpro...
• Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner’s website: https://www.juergen-schaflechner.com/
Dr. Jürgen Schaflechner, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Email: j.schaflechner@fu-berlin.de
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/forschung/kommunikation/preise/erc/index.html
https://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/ethnologie/forschung/arbeitsstellen/freigeistpro...
https://www.juergen-schaflechner.com/
Jürgen Schaflechner
Source: Christoph Malte Marx
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Jürgen Schaflechner
Source: Christoph Malte Marx
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